With so many fitness trackers, smart watches and step counters available today, it can be difficult to know exactly which one suits you and your goals. Do you simply want to achieve somewhere in the realm of 10,000 steps per day in between working from home, or are you a runner, cyclist or indoor fitness lover that wants to assess heart rates, track calories, time workouts and even keep an eye on your sleep quality? There’s a million different things a fitness tracker/smart watch can tell you about your overall health (albeit not always 100% accurately) and if we’ve realised one thing this past year, it’s that keeping healthy is pretty important.

When Amazfit got in touch about a month ago to ask if I’d like to give one of their smart watches a go, it couldn’t have come at a better time. I was in a bit of a post-Christmas slump and after far too much food and drink, I was feeling a bit creaky when it came to working out. A fitness tracker was the kick up the arse I needed to start 2021 feeling my best self – I was ready to give the Amazfit GTR a go.

Amazfit GTR First Impressions

There are two new Amazfit smartwatches on the market – the GTR 2e (a round watch face) and the GTS 2e (a rectangular watch face a little bit similar to the Apple watch). For those that are into fitness trackers and know a thing or two about them, id say the GTS 2e poses similarities to an Apple Watch or Fitbit, whereas the GTR 2e is more in the style of a Garmin.

Preferring the round style face, I went for the GTR 2e which promises 90+ sports modes, up to 45 days battery life, blood oxygen saturation measurement and an ultra-slim and light design.

For ease of matching it to everything, I went for the all over black, which has a matte rubber strap. Granted, this is a little bit big for my wrist (someone commented I looked like I was wearing my fiance’s watch) but that is probably more of a me having very small hands than a fault with Amazfit itself! I still love it regardless. 

Once the watch arrived, it was a case of a quick set up scanning the QR code and downloading the app (I usually dread these kind of things but this was super easy and quick), connecting the Bluetooth to my phone and syncing with Strava, before it was ready to use. I also set my fitness goals (you can tailor this to what is achievable for you). One thing I loved was the sheer amount of digital watch face designs to choose from – so I had a bit of fun playing around with these.

Exploring the watch is a matter of swiping across the face in different directions – so for settings (night mode, find my phone, torch etc) you swipe down from the top, for heart rate measurements, activity and calories – swipe right and for phone notifications, swipe up. You can also do things like set an alarm and check the weather by swiping left. The watch face has two buttons around the outside, one for setting a workout and the other for doing more advanced things such as checking your temperature (handy in today’s world!) and also tracking your stress levels!

There’s loads of different things I haven’t mentioned, but honestly, we’d be here all day – after six weeks of wearing it, I’m still discovering its features myself!

Using the Amazfit GTR watch

Running

Taking my watch on its first run was an exciting morning – and the Amazfit GTR didn’t disappoint. I pressed the bottom button to set the watch to outdoor running and pressed ‘Go’. The Amazfit enabled GPS pretty quickly and I was away.

Your run is displayed on the screen at all times and by swiping left you can pause or end the run. Swipe right and you can control your music By pressing the top button, you are taken back to the watch’s home screen, but the run will continue to be tracked until you swipe left and physically end it yourself.

Depending on your goals, your watch will vibrate when you have reached these – such as a constant 30-min fat burning heart rate or 10,000 steps. The run itself will be tracked in KM and will every now and then remind you of your pace (something you may or may not want to know!). When the run is over, simply swipe across to end.

The watch will give you a brief overview of your run such as distance, calories burnt, average pace etc but if you want to view it in more detail, you can open it up in the app. Once you have opened the app, the run will then upload to Strava too, if you want to share it with others.

In terms of heart rate, the watch gives a pretty detailed description. Working in four stages, it will go from relaxed to warm up, to aerobic to anaerobic and then to maximum which is anything above 170 bpm. After a run or workout, your summary will give you the percentage of the time you spent in each heart rate zone (if you’re unsure about what each of these mean, the app will also explain this pretty well).

If you’re opting for a walk over a run, the tracking is pretty much the same! My only gripe when using the watch for running was having the ‘end’ and ‘pause’ on-screen buttons so close together. There’s been a few times where I’ve opted to pause a run, whether that’s to cross a road or simply because I’m too out of breath and I’ve ended it by mistake – meaning my run is tracked in two halves. I also found the ‘continue’ button after pausing to stick a little (the screen is also a bit hard to navigate when wearing gloves but that could possibly be my touch-screen gloves not being sensitive enough).

Working out

From strength training to HIIT and ‘free training’, you can also track workouts on the watch, so it’s perfect for gym-goers too. Like running, simply press the bottom button and select your workout of choice (there are SO many to choose from) but I usually went with HIIT, strength training or indoor cycling as I have a spin bike. As you work out, the watch will again track your heart rate, as well as calories burnt and time elapsed. 

Would I recommend the Amazfit GTR 2E?

In short, yes. For £100, this watch is well-worth the money and is great for anyone just getting into fitness as well as those that are a bit more advanced. As well as this, it’s a lovely design with so many additional functions! The set-up was super easy, the battery life is substantial, it’s super sweat-proof and so far I haven’t had any issues with it crashing/breaking/freezing.

If I was to be pedantic, i’d say the calories burnt aren’t very specific (I track a run in the morning which burns around 500 calories but then I maybe burn another 200 all day – and I know for a fact I burn more than 700 calories in a day as I definitely eat more than that!) so I’m thinking that this watch only tracks active calories rather than overall – which is different to any fitness trackers I’ve experienced in the past. However, I really am enjoying my Amazfit watch as both a fitness device and an everyday watch and think it’s as good as its pricier competitors. Definitely give it a go if you’re looking for a new smartwatch.